Last week, “Head of College” (the new title replacing “master”) Julia Adams announced in an email to the Calhoun community that a set of stained glass panels depicting various moments from the statesman’s life would be removed from the college common room.

In the email, Adams said the impetus for their removal came from a study conducted by Yale’s Committee on Art in Public Spaces “following damage to one of the windows” in the dining hall. In an interview, she declined to confirm that the window in question was the same panel broken by Menafee, referring further questions to University spokesman Tom Conroy. Conroy told the Independent that Menafee’s status is officially “not employed by the university.” He said he may not disclose any further information about what’s a personnel matter.

Update: After this story was originally published, Yale Vice President for Communications Eileen O’Connor sent a statement to the Independent.

“An incident occurred at Calhoun College, a residential college on the campus of Yale University, in which a stained glass window was broken by an employee of Yale, resulting in glass falling onto the street and onto a passerby, endangering [her] safety. The employee apologized for his actions and subsequently resigned from the University. The University will not advocate that the employee be prosecuted in connection with this incident and is not seeking restitution.”

In an interview with the Independent, O’Connor said she doesn’t know for sure if the glass fell on the passerby or in front of her, but “it was scary enough nonetheless.“The woman was not injured. O’Connor claimed that Menafee’s resignation was not a condition of Yale declining to pursue the charges. Menafee himself declined to comment on that same question.

Last month, dining hall workers from across the university gathered in Calhoun to prepare food for a June 15 staff appreciation event on Old Campus, according to one of the workers involved. It didn’t take long for conversation to turn to the stained-glass panels on the Elm Street side of the building, said the worker, who asked to remain anonymous due to the sensitive nature of the issue.

“Everybody has something to say about them,” the worker said. “[Menafee] was the one who took action and busted that shit out.”

Menafee, who has not been in touch with his colleagues since losing his job, said he smacked the stained glass twice with his broom, then watched the panel fall to the ground, where it broke into pieces.

His boss, dining hall manager Samuel Feliciano, witnessed the episode, Menafee said, and police arrived on the scene shortly thereafter. (Feliciano could not be reached for comment.)

“I just went to the bathroom and shaved,” Menafee said, “to make sure I was clean-shaven for the authorities.”

He was arrested in Calhoun by the New Haven Police Department and left the college in handcuffs. He faces a second-degree misdemeanor charge of reckless endangerment and a first-degree felony charge of criminal mischief. He has yet to enter a plea.

Menafee grew up in New Haven and has two children. He graduated from Virginia Union University in 2001 with a degree in mass communications. Before starting his job at Yale in September 2007, he worked for a management services firm, and also spent a few months as a substitute teacher.

He said he regrets breaking the windows — ten seconds of action that cost him a job he loved.

“It could be termed as civil disobedience,” Menafee said. “But there’s always better ways of doing things like that than just destroying things. It wasn’t my property, and I had no right to do it.”

He lost his job, he said, because the university deemed him a potential threat to students, an assessment he vigorously contests.

In an interview with the Independent, Conroy said Menafee’s status is officially “not employed by the university.” He said he may not disclose any information on personnel records.

“I didn’t commit any acts of violence against anyone or any living thing,” Menafee said. “I didn’t be belligerent, or yell. I just broke the windows.”

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Comments

posted by: wendy1 on July 11, 2016 4:04pm

How can I get this man out of jail? I am calling Scott Greenberg right now.

posted by: Dwightstreeter on July 11, 2016 4:38pm

Jill Stein like to say “people above property” and I agree. The Yale Corp. is not ready to come to terms with its racist history, so a college educated dishwasher has decided to make his statement in a public way and suffer the consequences. This is classic civil disobedience. It is shocking, but it harmed NO person, just the sensibilities of those who place property above people. As long as our institutions (Congress, Supreme Court, churches) fail to support equality, we will spin towards anarchy.

posted by: Mr. Garvey on July 11, 2016 4:46pm

@wendy1 Besides him it’s people like you that are part of the problem. Just be vas we are black doesn’t mean we should make excuses for not being able to control our behavior and we don’t need your excuse making for us to justify the same. He should be fired for acting like a fool and its people like you Wendy that encourage this behavior with your patronizing comments that reinforce the low expectations liberal whites have of us. This is the problem in a nutshell. The soft bigotry of low expectations!!!

posted by: Walt on July 11, 2016 4:48pm

People are still try to past history instead of accepting what happened in the past, teaching about , you have those who want to bury it or “Smash,” because his face reminds him of the victims of the slavery although he was never a slave.

These stained windows depict a part of American history, a past that should not forgotten. A past that these stained windows reminds the students of a past that race was used to sustain an industry. History of a people who were sold into slavery by other Africans to Europeans that were looking for free labor in the new world. Europeans gave guns to Africans in exchange for other Africans who would work on plantation in the new world. American Slavery partly existed because Africans were warring against each other. The exploitation of Africa by European and maybe now China is a result of corruption in African States.